ijzeren 20 Centimes Vichy France 1944

Vichy France (French: Régime de Vichy; 10 July 1940 – 9 August 1944), officially the French State (État français), was the French rump state headed by Marshal Philippe Pétain during World War II. It was named after its seat of government, the city of Vichy. Officially independent, but with half of its territory occupied under the harsh terms of the 1940 armistice with Nazi Germany, it adopted a policy of collaboration. Though Paris was nominally its capital, the government established itself in the resort town of Vichy in the unoccupied "free zone" (zone libre), where it remained responsible for the civil administration of France as well as its colonies.^[3] The occupation of France by Nazi Germany at first affected only the northern and western portions of the country, but in November 1942 the Germans and Italians occupied the remainder of Metropolitan France, ending any pretence of independence by the Vichy government.  bron